Comb



- July 4, 1939.

o. B. CARSON COMB Filed Oct. 25, 1938 INVENTOR 351444.40 5. 69050 a BY g I i R EYS Patented July 4, 1939 v UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE COMB Oswald B. Carson, Scarsdale, N. Y., asslgnor to American Hard Rubber Company, New York. N. Y., a corporation of New York Application October 25, 1938, Serial No. 236,836 3 Claims. (Cl. 132-19) The invention relates to an improvement in of teeth, consisting of a group of relatively coarse hair dressing combs and more particularly to an teeth] and a group of flne teeth 8 projecting outimprovement in such combs especially adapted wardly from the inner end of a back or quill 9, for dressing curls or waves which are commonly and a heavy guard tooth I. at each end of the held in position by hair pins of the kind desigbank of teeth. The back or quill 9 of the illus- 5 nated bobby pins. In its usual construction, trated comb is of substantial width and thickness this type of hair pin is formed of a narrow and slightly arched, which is the usual form of thin strip of metal bent upon itself to constitute pocket comb, although it may be straight and of two prongs or arms spring pressed toward each any convenient size and still answer the purposes 10 other, one of the prongs being straight and the of the invention. The length of the comb is 10 other corrugated or crinkled. In some forms preferably such that it may be readily accomof bobby pins both arms are corrugated or modated in a woman's handbag or similar recrinkled. The point at which the prongs Join ceptacle. is called the loop and its two sides have an open- The improvement consists in providing recesses 16 ing between them. Although the spring presat either or both ends of the back 8 of the comb sure of the prongs toward each other and the to hold firmly but detachably 'a plurality of corrugations on one or both of the prongs tend bobby pins or other hair pins of similar conto prevent the pin from accidental displacement struction. Each of the hair pin holding recesses from its position in the curl or wave, holding consists of two sections or grooves, one groove be- 20 the strands of hair in adjusted position, nevertheing indicated at l2 on one side or face of the 2 less, as is well known, these bobby pins do comb and the other groove at I4 on the other face sometimes become loosened and fall out of the of the comb. The grooves have side edges, which hair of the wearer, thereby requiring replacement. may be bevelled or straight. Each pin holding Since, however, the displaced bobby" pin is often groove may be made wide enough to accommolost, the wearer usually carries a supply of them date any given number of pins depending on the 5 in her handbag or other receptacle. But searchwidth of the back or quill 9 of the comb and the ing for loose bobby pins in the bottom of a 'width of the bobby pins. In the combs of usual handbag which contains other loose articles is construction it has been found convenient to time consuming and occasionally vexatious. make the recess sections or grooves l2 and I4 80 The object of the present invention is to obwide enough to accommodate and hold three pins viate the disadvantages of carrying bobby pins each, so that the comb of the character shown loose inahandbag or other receptacle by providing in the drawing may be provided with six bobby" means for having them in a place and in a posipins, held conveniently in readiness in case of tion where they will be always readily accessible. need. To accommodate the bobby pins in the 86 To this end, the back or quill portion of the imrecesses so that they will not become entangled proved comb constituting the present invention with each other and to avoid pulling out more is provided with a plurality of recesses in which than one bobby pin at a time the outer end of bobby pins of the type described above may each groove is provided with short ridges, indibe detachably but firmly held without liability cated at IS, the inner ends of which, as shown 0 of accidental displacement until needed. at It in Fig. 2, taper sharply down below the side In the accompanying drawing illustrating the 'walls I! of the back of the comb. There are two preferred form of the invention, Fig. 1 is a side ridges I5 at each end of the recess grooves or secelevationofthe improved comb, showing by means tions I2 and I4 and they together with the adjaof dot and dash lines a bobby" pin in position cent parts ll of the back 8 of the comb provide in one of the compartments of the pin holding three narrow pin receiving slots l9, just wide 45 recesses; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section taken enough freely to permit the insertion and withalong the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a fragment drawal of a bobby pin. of the left hand end of Fig. 2, showing a bobby" It is essential not'only that the bobby pins be pin in top plan view in place in one of the pinheld so firmly in the back of the comb as to preholding recesses; and Figs. 4 and 5 are sections vent accidental displacement, but they must also so taken along the lines 4-4 and 5-5, respectively, be so held as not to impose such a stress on the of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows. pins so as to strain them, and thereby impair the In its general features of construction the imresiliency of the two arms or prongs. For this proved comb illustrated in the drawing may be of purpose the greater portion of the length of so any usual or preferred form and comprisesabank the bottoms of the recess sections l2 and I4 are flat, and are separated from each other by a web 2! which while mechanically strong enough for the uses of the comb is so thin as not to impose a strain on the two prongs or arms of the bobby pin, one of which is shown in top plan in Fig. 3, in position in one of the sections of the pin holding recess. It will be noted in this figure that the straight side of the bobby" pin is indicated at 22 and the corrugated or crinkled side at 24. The loop of the pin is indicated at 25, and it will be observed that the two sides 20 and 21 of the loop are spaced apart considerably farther than the spacing of the arms or prongs 22 and 24 of the pin, even when the pin is in position in the pin holding recess. It will be understood of course that when a pin is not in use in the hair or in position in a pin-holding recess in the comb that the inner surfaces of the two prongs of the pin abut each other, being held together by the resiliency of the prongs.

To prevent accidental displacement of the bobby" pins from the pin holding recesses the outer ends of the webs 2| are formed as bulbous enlargements or bulbs 29 which are large enough to substantially fill the loop or opening formed by the curved sides 26 and 21 of the loop portion 25 of the bobby" pins. But although the bulbs, 29 efiectively prevent accidental dislodgement of the pins, the latter may readily be drawn longitudinally from the recesses by means of the fingers. the resiliency of the prongs 22 and 24 of the pin readily permitting them to separate and slide easily over the bulbs 29.

The thickness of a comb of usual construction is such relatively to the width of a bobby pin that the pin-holding recesses may be made of such depth that when the pins are in position in the recesses the outer sides of the prongs 22 and 24 of the bobby pins fall within the planes of the outer surfaces l1 of the back 9 of the comb, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 3. Thus although the back of the comb may be provided with its full complement of bobby" pins the latter will not interfere with the normal use of the comb.

It will be observed by reference to Fig. 4 that the side edges of the grooves l2 and I4 are in registry or alinement with each other and that the ridges N3 of one groove register with the ridges l5 of the other groove, and that therefore the corresponding compartments of the two grooves are opposite each other. Consequently, the arms or prongs of the bobby" pins are not subjected to any turning or twisting stresses while in position in the pin holding recesses.- The outturned end 3| of the corrugated prong 24 of the pin facilitates the passage of the split end of the pin over the bulb-like enlargement 29 when slipping a pin into two alined compartments. The removal of a pin is accomplished by placing the ends of the thumb and index thicker than the web so as finger on the sides 26 and 21 of loop 25 of the pin and drawing the pin longitudinally outwardly from the comb, the resilient prongs readily spreading as they pass over the bulb 29.

I claim:

1. A comb comprising an elongated back of substantial width and thickness and a bank of teeth extending outwardly from one edge of the back, the opposite faces of each end of the back being longitudinally grooved to form a web adapted to be straddled and engaged by the prongs of a bobby" pin, the two ends of the back at the outer ends of the grooves having each a bulb-like enlargement adapted to accommodate the loop portion of a bobby" pin, said enlargement being to prevent accidental displacement of a bobby pin from the grooves in which it is positioned.

2. A comb comprising an elongated back of substantial width and thickness and a bank of teeth extending outwardly from one edge of the back, said back being provided on the two faces of at least one end with a fiat-bottomed groove of substantially the length of a bobby pin and wider than said pin, said grooves at one end of the comb registering with each other and being separated by a web of such thickness as not to impose a strain on the prongs of a bobby pin engaging the two groove bottoms forming the web, the outer end of the grooves being provided with a bulbous enlargement to accommodate and substantially fill the opening in the loop of the pin, said bulb being of greater thickness than the web separating the bottoms of the grooves.

3. A comb comprising an elongated back of substantial width and thickness and a bank of teeth extending outwardly from one edge of the back, said back being provided on each face of its two ends with a flat bottomed groove of substantially the length of a hobby pin and wider than a plurality of said pins, the grooves at each end of the comb registering with each other and being separated by a web of such thickness as not to impose a strain on the prongs of a bobby pin engaging the two groove bottoms forming the web, the outer ends of the grooves being provided with a bulb-like enlargement to accommodate and substantially fill the opening in the loop of the pin, said bulb being of greater thickness than the web separating the bottoms of the grooves, the outer end of each groove being provided with at least one narrow ridge parallel with the edges of the groove and extending from the end of the comb inwardly a distance substantially equal to the length of the loop portion of the "bobby" pin so as to divide each groove into a plurality of parallelly-arranged compartments sufllciently wide to accommodate the prongs of a bobby pin.

OSWALD B. CARSON. 

